The present invention relates to chair bases, and more particularly to chair bases constructed to improve manufacturability and reduce cost while maintaining aesthetics.
Chairs often include bases with radially extending legs with casters on their ends for movably supporting the chairs. The legs must be structurally sound for supporting the weight of the chair and a person seated in the chair. The legs must also be visually attractive since at least a portion of the legs is visible when looking down at the chair from a few feet away. This can be problematic since materials strong enough to provide the structural strength desired may be difficult to aesthetically cover. Also, some legs have peculiar cross-sectional shapes that are difficult to uniformly paint or coat. For example, some customers desire chrome-plated legs on their chairs. However, chrome-plating processes have severe limitations concerning the type of materials that can be plated and the depth that the chrome-plating material can be thrown. Another problem is that many coatings unacceptably show through surface defects, such as weld marks, scuff marks, and any other surface inconsistencies. Still another problem is that people often put their feet on the legs while seated in the chair, thus tending to scratch and scuff the top of the legs. A chair base construction is desired having reduced manufacturing costs, but that allows use of coating materials having high wear resistance and an attractive appearance.
Many chair bases include a sleeve-like central hub and radially extending legs with casters on their outer ends. The legs undergo considerable stress based on their cantilevered construction and, for this reason, must be attached to the central hub repeatably, consistently, and securely. However, it can be difficult to weld the legs to the central hub since the legs interfere with clear access to the area of the joint when welding 360 degrees around the joint. Further, the legs must be accurately welded, since the casters on the ends of the legs must all touch the floor. Thus, it has been difficult to automate the leg-to-hub joining process and also difficult to consistently make a high quality joint.
Accordingly, a chair base solving the aforementioned problems is desired.